I'm running Win XP on three laptops - one Toshiba and 2 Dells. Everything worked great when we left town and when we returned one of the Dells and the Toshiba connected as expected.
The problem is the the second Dell - I get "acquiring network address" on both the wireless as well as the local adapter.
Nothing has been changed. All computers were locked up while we were gone.
Any ideas??

If you get an error message about not being able to contact your DHCP server, then make sure Windows is managing your laptop wireless and not software that came with your laptops' wireless device.

In cmd type ping 127.0.0.1 . This will ping your own laptop. If you see error in the report, then TCP/IP is not configured properly on your laptop.

You can go to cmd and type in ipconfig , press enter and you will see the DNS suffix, IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway address for your laptops' primary network connection. To see the details about every available network connection type into cmd ipconfig /all . Check that your subnet mask and default gateway address are the same as on your other computers.

Post your results from all the above back here.

Deadeye81

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." Sir Winston Churchill

I performed the steps you suggest - (flushdns) successfully flushed cache - (release) ip address has already been released - (renew) an error occurred on wireless. The RCP server is unavailable.

I finally got a connection - I went to started services and compared them to the good dell and found that DHCP, network connections, network dde, smtp, tcp/ip helper were not started. Once I did that - the renew worked and I got an ip address.

One additional thing - I was getting "limited or no connectivity" on the wireless and that must have been due to one of the services not being started.

Thanks for the suggestions. Note "start services.msc" from "cmd" starts started services.
jbs/

I am glad to hear your difficulties are resolved. After I posted the steps to take, I thought about the services and wrote down a list of them to check to be sure they were started. That was going to be my follow up if you received error messages after running ipconfig release and renew.

Your solution will help others who undoubtedly will experience the same issue at some point. Thanks for posting your solution.

Deadeye81

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." Sir Winston Churchill

Similar Problem

My desktop PC running WindowsXP is also unable to “acquire network address”, this began subsequent to the reboot AVG suggested after an update. AVG had also just white listed C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\netbt.sys

I carefully followed the instructions in your post what follows are the ones that gave trouble.

Checking Services
DHCP Client was set to Automatic BUT HAD NOT STARTED
DNS Client set to Automatic and had started
Network Connections were set to Manual and had started
Security Accounts Manager set to Automatic and started
Wireless Zero Configuration set to Automatic and started

When I attempted to start the DHCP Client I received the error message:- “Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion”

When booted and running from a Ubuntu cd the PC connects to the internet with no trouble, so I think the problem is with Windows rather than the network card or the physical connection.

I use Soluto to keep an eye on boot times and if the router is turned off the PC boots in 40secs but if the router is on it takes 2:38

Thanks for your prompt answer.
I did try a restore almost as soon as I the problem showed, I have just tried again, at the earliest date available, getting on all occasions “Your computer cannot be restored to:” – I have used the restore facility fairly recently, so this failure is new as well.

Just downloaded (via my laptop) and installed WSDV and looked at the DHCP Client section. Lots of information! But guessing that the “State” should not be “Stopped”; status is “OK” – Startmode “Auto” – ProcessId “0”

The DHCP Client Dependent is a blank.
The DHCP Client Antecedent has in it AFD and TCP/IP, the latter leads into TCP/IP Protocol Driver, which leads to IPSEC driver – both are running.

When I run WSDV on my portable in the DHCP Client section there is an additional Antecedent of “NetBios over Tcpip. (Is this part of Wifi, which the portable is using, or the fact it is missing from the desktop part of the problem?)

I then checked on the desktop the TCP/IP NetBios Helper. The State was “Stopped” on the desktop but “Running” on the portable.

I have not used the Event Viewer before but after some experimenting I closed it down then using Services attempted to start the DHCP Client, this failed.

I then opened the Event Viewer, which showed an error in the Service Control Manager at the time I attempted to start the DHCP Client. The message was “The DHCP Client service depends on the following nonexistent service:NetBT